Welcoming the UK Government’s Health and Care Bill in Parliament this week, Vale of Clwyd MP Dr James Davies highlighted some of the issues North Wales patients are currently facing in accessing the healthcare services they need and said the Bill provides opportunities to address this.
Speaking in Wednesday’s House of Commons debate on the Bill, James, who has worked as a doctor in the NHS for 17 years, said that it also provides the opportunity to address some of the disparities in healthcare provision across the United Kingdom.
He said:
“I hope the Bill can be used to provide people with equal access to, and choice of, secondary and tertiary healthcare services across the country, regardless of where in Britain they live.
“My constituent Ian Kightley was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. As a result of his treatment, he developed problems with his vision and required cataract surgery in both eyes. Like so many in north Wales, when he was advised of a two-year waiting list he was forced to pay for private healthcare, which he was able to do only through fundraising.
“Only in the last week, while working as a GP, I saw patients who had been advised of two-year waits solely for their first out-patient clinic appointments at Glan Clwyd Hospital.
“This Bill provides a vital opportunity for us to level up healthcare and ensure that all our constituents can access the best treatment as soon as possible.”
With regards the disparities in healthcare provision across the UK,
“UK Health and Care Bill provides vital opportunity to level up health care and ensure North Wales patients receive the best treatment as soon as possible”
Welcoming the UK Government’s Health and Care Bill in Parliament this week, Vale of Clwyd MP Dr James Davies highlighted some of the issues North Wales patients are currently facing in accessing the healthcare services they need and said the Bill provides opportunities to address this.
Speaking in Wednesday’s House of Commons debate on the Bill, James, who has worked as a doctor in the NHS for 17 years, said that it also provides the opportunity to address some of the disparities in healthcare provision across the United Kingdom.
He said:
“I hope the Bill can be used to provide people with equal access to, and choice of, secondary and tertiary healthcare services across the country, regardless of where in Britain they live.
“My constituent Ian Kightley was diagnosed with cancer in 2015. As a result of his treatment, he developed problems with his vision and required cataract surgery in both eyes. Like so many in north Wales, when he was advised of a two-year waiting list he was forced to pay for private healthcare, which he was able to do only through fundraising.
“Only in the last week, while working as a GP, I saw patients who had been advised of two-year waits solely for their first out-patient clinic appointments at Glan Clwyd Hospital.
“This Bill provides a vital opportunity for us to level up healthcare and ensure that all our constituents can access the best treatment as soon as possible.”
With regards the disparities in healthcare provision across the UK, James said:
“First, we should mandate the collection of an agreed set of UK-wide directly comparable data on NHS performance and outcomes, for clinical and research purposes. I am already engaging with the Office for National Statistics on how that could work in practice, and believe that the Bill could have an important enabling role to play.
“Secondly, data interoperability must be improved. It is unacceptable that the health service in Wales often cannot communicate in a fit-for-purpose way with services in England, and vice versa.
“Thirdly, my direct experience of working in the NHS leads me to feel strongly that inspection, safety and audit mechanisms should be introduced at a national level to ensure a minimum standard of care for all British citizens. Those who are managing inferior services must be able to learn lessons from more effectively run areas and, ultimately, be held to account.”
As vice-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on obesity, James also welcomed the introduction of restrictions on the advertising of high fat, salt and sugar products online, and on television before 9pm.
